Yield quality and irrigation with saline water under environmental limitations: The case of processing tomatoes in California

Irrigation with saline water has a positive impact on some quality indices of processing tomatoes, but with concomitant reductions in output quantity. This article studies the impact of the trade-off between these two factors on optimal water management under waterlogging and costly drainage-disposal conditions. The focus is on the content of total soluble solids as a quality measure affecting prices paid by California processors to tomato growers. A function relating quality to water and salinity applications and a quality hedonic-price function are estimated and introduced into a static, field-level mathematical programming model. The model calculates optimal water management under environmental regulations associated with drainage disposal in California. Findings indicate that only when the quality effect is taken into account does blending fresh surface-water with saline drain-water become an optimal strategy. Management and policy implications on the regional scale are discussed.